GBM indication: TLD-1433 vs KeytrudaHere's what Bungee has been missing 3 days ago when he posted about his "
Speed it up Boys" post on Keytruda!
In the GBM indication, Keytruda is used whether in combination with chemo, or in pre-surgery.
TLT's technology doesn't need any of them.
Take a look:
Neuro-Oncology Advances journal - Open access ...
Efficacy of Ruthenium coordination complex based Rutherrin in a pre-clinical rat glioblastoma(GBM) model ...
Following a single therapy, a significant survival increase was observed in rats bearing glioma for PDT mediated by Rutherrin versus PpIX for the selected treatment conditions. Now, lets compare this with Keytruda in GBM:
1) Keytruda still requires surgery. TLT's technology won't.
2) And TLT's technology doesn't discriminate between patients by testing for checkpoint inhibitors. So TLT will always have a much wider pool of patients. Which will translate into much more revenues.
Merck Drug Found to Extend Lives of Brain-Cancer Patients Feb 11, 2019 Patients with the same aggressive brain cancer that killed U.S. Senator John McCain saw survival time double after being treated with Merck & Co.’s blockbuster immunotherapy drug Keytruda before surgery to remove a tumor.
Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles seeking new treatments for the cancer, called recurrent glioblastoma,
found that patients who were treated with Keytruda before the removal of a brain tumor survived an average of 417 days -- nearly double the historic average for the deadly disease. The results are the first findings to suggest that a class of cancer treatments called checkpoint inhibitors, which unleash the immune system to attack malignant cells, benefit glioblastoma patients. Although the clinical trial evaluated only 35 patients and didn’t have a control group, the results will arm scientists with information to launch new trials.
“
Everyone is very excited,” said Robert Prins, a professor of neurosurgery at UCLA’s
Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and senior author of the study. “
It’s the first signal we’ve seen of the clinical benefit, but we don’t want to jump to conclusions that we’ve cured this kind of tumor. What it did was give us important information that the timing of treatment mattered.”
Prins said the study wasn’t designed to look at survival but rather to better understand how immunotherapy affects a brain tumor. Of the 35 patients evaluated, 16 received the immunotherapy both before and after surgery, while 19 received the treatment only after the operation.
Patients who received treatment only after surgery didn’t see much benefit, surviving an average of 228 days, which is in line with the current expectancy.
Merck shares fell 0.9 percent to $76.86 at 1:11 p.m. in New York. The stock is up 0.6 percent for the year.
Expanding Trials
Due to the success of the trial, Prins and his colleagues said they’ve reached an agreement with Merck to expand the presurgery immunotherapy treatment to an additional 25 patients within the first half of the year. In other clinical trials, melanoma and lung-cancer patients have also seen prolonged lifespan following presurgery treatment, according to the researchers.
Merck has seen Keytruda sales boom to more than $7 billion a year amid an increasingly competitive market for innovative treatments that target many types of cancer. The drug has slugged it out with Bristol Myers Squibb Co.’s Opdivo as both companies vie for the market lead in immuno-oncology. Pfizer Inc., GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Novartis AG are also investing heavily in cancer therapies.
“Merck has done an excellent job of making Keytruda the envy of its immuno-oncology peers, with a string of clinical-trial wins conferring a halo effect, and physicians are likely to think of prescribing the drug first,” said Sam Fazeli, a Bloomberg Intelligence global pharmaceutical analyst, in a note.
Prins said the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center is looking to treat recurrent glioblastoma patients with Bristol-Myer’s Opdivo, as well.
“Currently, there is no true standard of care for recurrent glioblastoma,” Prins said. “But we are believers in immunotherapy. We’re excited to expand the basis of the science.”
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Claridge - (5/31/2019 10:53:18 AM) RE:Speed it up Boys So amusing this Bungee ...
Hurry up for what?
Bungee forgot this important perspective, from Allison itself:
Dec. 6, 2018 STOCKHOLM (AP) — The winners of this year's Nobel Prize for Medicine say they expect substantial advances toward treating cancer in the next several decades, although it is unlikely the disease could be eradicated.
James Allison of the United States and Tasuku Honjo of Japan made the assessments at a Thursday news conference ahead of receiving the 9 million-kronor ($999,000) prize.
They were named winners of the prize in October for their work in immunotherapy — activating the body's natural defense system to fight tumors.
"Soon we'll get close with some cancers," Allison said, citing progress against some forms including melanoma. But, he said, "the world will never be cancer-free."
Honjo said he expects that immunotherapy will eventually be used against most cancers, often in combination with radiation or chemotherapy, and that cancer can effectively be stalled "even if we cannot completely eliminate the tumor, if we can survive with some tumor."
"I think what is coming next are triple combinations and quadruple combinations," Allison said.
Although immunotherapy is an advance against cancer treatment, the costs are high, with courses of treatment reportedly exceeding $100,000.
"Something's going to happen" about the cost, Allison said. "These high prices are not just a feature of these drugs — it's almost everything. ... It's out of control. We've just got to hope that with competition and wisdom the prices will come down."
By the way, here's more on his wife:
... Allison, chair of the immunology department at MD Anderson Cancer Center
... He is married to oncologist Padmanee Sharma, a scientific collaborator and a specialist in renal, bladder and prostate cancers at MD Anderson. The two are working on studies that use serial biopsies of prostate and other cancers to try to determine how the immune system reacts over time to different treatments. ______________
Bunge - (5/31/2019 8:48:16 AM) Speed it up Boys
Stuff like this always gets me thinkin' we better stop puzzy-footing around and git-r-don already.